Citing anonymous sources, several mainstream Russian news sites claimed on February 5 that 18-year-old Valery Permyakov, charged with the deaths of seven members of the Avetisian family, spent more than a month in a psychiatric hospital before being stationed late last year at Russia’s 102nd army base in Gyumri.

LifeNews, referencing military investigators, reported that doctors at a psychiatric hospital in the Siberian town of Chita where Permyakov was stationed supposedly detected “serious behavioral disorders.”

An unnamed source told Gazeta.ru that Permyakov earlier had received a diagnosis of mental retardation. “They didn’t have the right at all to induct him [into the army], much less to place him on guard with a weapon,” the source said.

Those involved with Permyakov's enlistment, however, claimed to Russian media that they had no knowledge or record of previous mental-health problems.

The Armenian investigative committee looking into the murders told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that Russian officials have not yet responded to a request for information about Permyakov’s previous state of mental health.

Military prosecutors have requested that the individuals who approved Permyakov for military service, as well as the 102nd base-officers who gave him a weapon be “held accountable," Russian media report, but how far that scrutiny will go is open to doubt.

As Simon Saradzhyan, a Russian-military expert at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, wrote in The Moscow Times, though, the Russian military has long been dogged by the problem of bloodshed committed by mentally disturbed soldiers who were cleared for service.

It is not known whether or not Permyakov has been examined by psychiatrists at the 102nd army base, where he is being held and will be tried.

That absence of information has fueled suspicions about the reasons for releasing now the details about Permyakov's alleged condition.

Some Armenians fear that it boils down to Moscow's desire to hush up the scandal, which is badly damaging its image within Armenia, Russia's main strategic partner in the South Caucasus.

Protests for Russia to hand the soldier over to Armenian law-enforcement have been held in Gyumri and the capital, Yerevan. One man has been arrested in connection with the January 15 Gyumri protest, which targeted the town's Russian consulate.